Salim Merchant

Salim Merchant born on March 03, 1974 in Mumbai, their ancestral town is Kutch, Gujarat. Inspired by his father Sadruddin Merchant. He is married to Jeanne Merchant and have a daughter named Ayesha Merchant.

Music Career

Salim Merchant had often worked along with his brother Sulaiman Merchant and they are widely regarded as Salim – Sulaiman. They have given music for a numerous Hindi movies.

Salim Merchant did his schooling from Mumbai’s St. Peter’s High School and went KC College to pursue his graduation. Salim developed an interest in music at a very young age, since father was a music director. After completing his graduation Salim enrolled himself in London’s Trinity College of Music to master the Piano.

There after he went to Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan Delhi to learn Harmonium. His Guru was Ustad Sultan Khan.

Salim Merchant has been composing songs along with his sibling, Sulaiman Merchant. They have gained popularity in the industry owing to the movies like Chak de India and Fashion

Moreover, Salim Merchant took control of Piano in his college days and mastered it. He received recognition for his work in the movie titled, Bhoot after six years of immense hard work.

Salim Merchant and Sulaiman have been composing music for over a decade having scored for movies such as Neal ‘n’ Nikki, Chak De! India, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Fashion. The duo had also composed for many Indi-pop performers including Viva, Aasmaan, Shweta Shetty, Jasmine and Style Bhai among others, composed and produced several TV commercials and collaborated with artistes such as Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan.

 After that, they have gone to do movies with well-known producers and directors like Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Ram Gopal Varma. They were predominantly composing background scores for movies, until the Karan Johar, Kaal, for which their song compositions received acclaim.

Salim Merchant was one of the three judges for the Fifth season of Indian Idol on Sony Entertainment Television.

In addition of his music composition he is also a great singer his famous song was Ishq Wala Love from the movie ‘Student of The Year’

They have worked on a Bollywood remix for Lady Gaga’s songs Born This Way and Judas. They also worked on I’m A Freak By Enrique.

The duo are also composing music for the Hollywood film Sold produced by Academy Award winner Jeffrey D. Brown.

2010 FIFA World Cup

After being the first Indian musicians to be nominated for an Emmy Award, for outstanding original song in the children and animation category for the animation show, The Wonder Pets, Salim-Sulaiman have another laurel in store. The duo was recently approached by a corporate body associated with FIFA, to compose a song for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, to be held in South Africa in June.

The corporate body is mostly made up of Indians, so they wanted us to compose a sports anthem for the World Cup, on the lines of Chak de India, Salim Merchant, one-half of the duo, which has composed songs for Chak De India ,Kurbaan, and Fashion, among others.

Although, initially, the duo weren’t sure about whether the song would actually be used in a big way during the World Cup, Merchant informs that recently, the main FIFA organizing body heard the song and loved it. And now, there are plans of taking the song even further.

The composer duo is now planning to get iconic Senegalese singer and Grammy Award winner, Youssou N’Dour, on board to sing the song. Youssou is the most famous African singer and they’d love nothing more than to get him to sing for them. The only unfortunate thing is that they’d have to remove Sidd’s voice from the track. If all goes well for the duo, they will also perform at the closing ceremony of the FIFA World Cup.

Famous Songs of Salim – Suleiman

Poorna: Courage Has No Limit (2017) – Arijit Singh, Vishal Dadhlani , Raj Pandit.

Janaan (2016) – Armaan Malik, Shreya Ghoshal, Bhoomi Trivedi, Iqbal M, Natasha Hay.

Jai Gangaajal (2016) – Sukhwinder Singh, Udit Narayan, Parvesh Mallick, Richa Sharma, Divya Kumar.

Wedding Pullav (2015) – Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Arijit Singh.

22 Yards (2014) – Siddhart Mahadevan, Amit Mishra, Nikitha Gandhi, Amartya Roy.

Ungli (2014) – Gulraj Singh, Neeti Mohan, Armaan Malik.

Mardaani (2014) – Sunidhi Chauhan

Kaanchi: The Unbreakable (2014) – Sonu Nigam, Ismail Darbar, Mika Singh, Neeti Mohan, Aishwarya Majmundar

Rabba Main Kya Karoon (2013) – Monali Thakur, Benny Dayal, Vidhi Sharma, Akash Chopra, Labh Janjua, Satyadev Singh.

Satyagraha (2013) – Shweta Pandit, Rahul Ram, Aadesh Shrivastava, Shraddha Pandit, Shafqat Amanat Ali

Awards

Filmfare Award for Best Background Score – Krrish
Apsara Award for Best Music Director – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
IIFA Best Background Score Award – Mujhse Shaadi Karogi
Star Screen Award for Best Background Score – Bhoot
Star Screen Award for Best Background Score – Dhoom
Zee Cine Award for Best Background Score – Ab Tak Chhappan
Syracuse International Film Festival Awards
Best Dressed Music Composers